Bible Basics #2

      Even recently I have been asked why I make such a big deal about people disregarding the New Testament pattern on instrumental music, but disregard the pattern for song books. The person who asks this question does not fully understand how God equips us through the New Testament.

      Many assume that to be authorized we must actually find every aspect of every action specifically stated in some verse. That is not the case. In our last article, we learned that the scripture equips us and authorizes action through three simple means: Direct Statement, Approved Example and Necessary Implication. However, in each of these categories, God authorizes Generally and Specifically.

      When God authorizes something specifically, He rules out every other possibility in that class. For instance, when God told Noah to build the ark out of gopher wood in Genesis 6:14, He implicitly condemned the use of all other kinds of wood.

      Therefore, when God authorizes His New Covenant worshippers to worship Him by singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs in Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16, He implicitly condemned every other form of musical worship. Instruments, humming, whistling and other forms of music are not authorized for worship. Further, when the New Testament specifically and universally demonstrates that the New Testament Christians participated in the Lord’s Supper on Sunday (Acts 20:7; I Corinthians 11:20; 16:1), it implicitly condemns participating on other days of the week.

      On the other hand, when God authorizes a class generally, everything in that class is authorized. God leaves it up to our judgment how to act. For instance, in Genesis 6, when God specified the kind of wood Noah should use, He did not specify the kinds of tools Noah could use. Implicitly, building an ark will take tools. However, God did not mention any. What did that mean for Noah? That meant God allowed the use of tools by Necessary Implication, but left it up to Noah to determine which tools and how to best use them.

      Thus, when God authorized singing specifically but without claiming how we were to read, learn or know the songs to sing, He generally authorized us to determine the best methods to worship in song. This is especially important in congregational worship which is to be done properly and in an orderly manner (I Corinthians 14:40). As Noah determined which tools to use with God’s authorization, we determine the tools we will use to aid in singing—songbooks, memorization, overheads, etc.

      Of course, that leads to another question. How do we know if the tool is an aid or an addition? We will ask that as we cover more Bible Basics next week. For now, we need to remember we must seek God’s authority through Scripture for all we do.

Edwin L. Crozier